Words with a Whale: Freelance Whales at Neumos 8/16
From the NYC underground to your neighborhood stage: Freelance Whales
While you aren’t likely to see the Whales reveling in their busking tendencies these days, Seattle fans of their rich vocal harmonies over banjo-driven airy pop have had a couple of chances to see the band this spring and summer.
We were lucky enough to catch up with multi-instrumentalist Chuck Criss in advance of the band’s Monday show at Neumos. Tokyo Police Club will headline.
[Update: Apologies for butchering TBTB's name. We've since corrected. Thanks to jdavin for the catch.]
Neumos // 925 East Pike Street // 8 p.m. // $15 adv // 21+
While in the crowd for your show with The Shout Out Louds, we couldn't help notice you all seemed sad and genuinely apologetic to have to cut your set short due to Sasquatch restrictions as being part of that line-up. What can fans expect from this show, that you weren't able to offer at your last gig at Neumos?
Well, they definitely can expect a longer show. I think we were only able to squeeze in a 30 min set that night, which meant we kept it mostly to the faster, uptempo songs. Hopefully we can play some of our more intense and slower songs and really create a nice mood. The dancing will still be there though.
Most write-ups of your band include mention of your busking past. How do you all tell that part of your story?
Busking became an extension of our performance once we realized how effective it actually was. We had some nice acoustic arrangements put together for 4 or 5 of our songs, and we decided to just play outside right before one of our show to promote it and hopefully get some more bodies in the room. We ended up getting some people to come to the show, and that encouraged us to start busking more aggressively as a way to get people interested in coming to the show. We never really meant it as a gimmick or anything like that, it just ended up being a really effective way of meeting new people and making new fans.
How did playing in NYC’s subway system influence the band?
It really honed our group singing dynamic. We were only starting to get to know each other as people and singers and busking for hours in the subway really helped bring together the dynamics that we now bring to the stage.
Do you all still play in stations?
We would love to. Time is pretty scarce, since we're on the road so much. Our goal is to get some new material together and go back there and try it out, see if they react to the new songs the same way they reacted to the old ones.
Are there any current Seattle bands that make it to your regular van/bus playlists?
We did a couple of shows with Pearly Gate Music, they are pretty great. Also, I think Soundgarden reunited. We'll be playing Lollapalooza this year, and so will they. We're going to get our Spoonman on.
An official video
A taste of the underground experience
